A Tennessee man who told police he was robbed and beaten at his health food store in November, alleging that his attackers wrote a homosexual slur on his forehead, was arrested last Friday and charged with filing a false report.

The false report charge comes amid a fast growing trend of hate crime hoaxes being perpetrated from within the gay community, presumably to draw sympathy for gay rights causes.

Joe Williams, 32, was arrested after he allegedly withheld information about the incident. Police found inconsistencies in Williams’ story, adding that he failed to bring up certain facts known to investigators on several occasions, according to The Paris Post-Intelligencer.

“He was given three opportunities to disclose that information, and he chose not to,” Paris Police Sgt. Ricky Watson told the Post-Intelligencer.

Williams’ charge of a homosexual slur being written on his body is similar to a claim made last year by a lesbian woman in Lincoln, Neb.

The woman was also charged with making false claims to police after alleging that three men wearing black ski masks broke into her home, bound her wrists and ankles with zip ties, beat her and carved anti-gay slurs into her arms and abdomen.

More recent reports of questionable claims include the New Jersey waitress, who made national news after showing a receipt on which a customer allegedly wrote, “I’m sorry but I cannot tip because I do not agree with your lifestyle.”

The customer eventually came forward, producing a statement from his credit card company, which reflected a 20 percent tip being paid.

This incident was followed by the report of a transgender student at Vasser College creating false hate crimes by spray painting anti-gay and anti-black messages across campus. The student was forced to withdraw.

All of which brings to mind the fable, “A boy who cried wolf” — the real victim in all of this will be the person who is targeted because of their sexual orientation, as a skeptical public looks the other way.

Excuse me? A fast-growing trend? These are isolated cases of fraud, and reflect no more on the broader Gay community than when a man who molests a little girl implicates the broader Straight community. You think Joe Williams is going to get any sympathy from those of us who ARE Gay? Think again!

No, Gay people are not all saints. People can also behave abominably, whether they are Gay or Straight. But other than the gender and sexual orientation of the people we love and marry, there really isn’t too much difference between Gay and Straight people, as more and more people are discovering every day.

Oh, he will certainly get sympathy, just like the other people mentioned in this story did. You see, I followed all these, and many others very closely. On gay blogs and websited the vitriol and hatred was unlike any I’ve ever seen on the ‘net. Conservatives and Christians in particular are shredded in ways and with language even this former sailor won’t use. Things are wished upon innocent people that I would not wish upon my worst enemy. Even so much as suggesting one wait until all the fact are out and the investigation complete before rushing to judgement are met with unmatched, profane vitriol.

When exposed as hoaxes, most to all of the same blogs and sites ignore it. In the cases where they don’t, the post is usually to state how, even though it was a hoax, it is still true and the perpetrator of the hoax is praised for “raising awareness”.

I’m sorry, bud, but when the sight of these stories causes most people to mutter, “hoax” due to the regularity of such, you have a trend on your hands. Actual hate crimes against gays are so rare that they now must be made up, which, in my opinion, is in itself a hate crime. When the fake-victims take money in the form of donations it also becomes interstate fraud.

Even you can’t bring it upon yourself to criticize the guy, Instead you must attack anyone who views this trend as what it really is, homosexual selfishness and hatred, including self-hatred.

Why should fair treatment for law-abiding, taxpaying Gay Americans be even remotely controversial? People who are Straight (i.e. heterosexual) have never had to worry about being fired from their jobs, kicked out of their rental properties, turned away from businesses, targeted with vandalism or violence, or denied the right to marry the person they love solely because of THEIR sexual orientation. I don’t think it’s asking too much that Gay people shouldn’t have to worry about these things, either.

I don’t think it is a particularly a “gay” thing, it seems to me to be a “liberal” idea. More than one liberal has tried to pass himself or herself off as being persecuted by some conservative – when the truth is they faked the thing. And, while not all homosexuals are liberals, I’d bet the majority are. Among those who perceive themselves as aggrieved, any means is acceptable if it achieves the ends.

The gay community should not have to worry and laws are already in place to protect them. I see no reason for special laws that will in essence give them more rights…rather like affirmative action laws have.

There are already laws that make ALL men equal. (including gays) … making these ridiculous “hate crime” laws do nothing but create a SPECIAL MINORITY CLASS with MORE RIGHTS than everybody else.

If a man punches another man in the face, whether it’s because he didn’t like something he said, because he bumped into him, because he didn’t like the way he looked, or because he was gay… it’s called ASSAULT and in all instances should be handled the same way. Calling it a “hate crime” because the man who got punched was gay, is nothing but serving a political agenda, and diminishes the rights of the majority of Americans… because now they have to even watch what they say (Phil Robertson) because of the precedent set by these new laws. Finally the “Special Protected Class” created by this, is open to abuse as we have seen with this specific case, as well as the waitress… or any gay person who wants to gain instant media attention and sympathy. They pull the “gay victim card.”

That is a deliberately naive view and depends on the assumption that we regard one another as equals and that corruption is not woven into the system. Clearly in our politics that is never true. Politics is about power and all power corrupts. There are majorities and minorities. Majorities will strip all rights from minorities if allowed to do so. That is a human truism. People are not naturally good to one another. We’re friendly with those we can identify. We’re rather nasty to those unlike ourselves, particularly when they are close at hand. That’s humanity – any assumption of fairness or justice in our character is ludicrous. A society operating as you would have it would eventually strip all rights from minorities and leave violence as their only recourse.

Now I believe that’s what you want. You want what works for you. We all do.

Our society arrives at a semblance of justice and equality, not because laws work and our people are united in their sense of fairness, but because our process of politics makes other courses more expensive over time. Minority protections are part of those politics and effective in keeping out peace. True, gays and lesbians aren’t the most violent lot and dropping such protections would carry very little cost, except to gays and lesbians, of course. Still, our process of politics always seeks “dragons to fight” and so you could say that LGBT rights are “caught in the net” along with race, gender, immigrant, and alternative-faith rights.

Take heart. The process works both ways. I’ve no doubt that the pendulum will swing the other way soon and 20 years from now we’ll be debating whether or not to implement Russia’s policies toward LGBT folks. Yo can be happy then.

Law follows culture and fortunately our culture has not yet shifted to support your xenophobic desire. BUT … you can take heart. For what it’s worth, I believe you’ll get your wish. Just give it a little time. Hate is primal, cheap, and universal. Tolerance, on the other hand, requires security, education, refinement, and a relatively stable society to support its population in these luxuries. Our society may not be doing that for much longer – certainly not like today. Notions of gay rights (and probably a lot of other high-minded ideas about equality and justice) are likely disappear beneath more practical concerns. You’ll get what you want then, I figure.

About 5 years ago, here, a cop caught a father and son painting swastikas on a Jewish temple! He took them to the rabbi to press charges, the rabbi refused, he said: “I can’t, they are members of this temple, and besides the paint is water based and will wash off! No other comment or explanation was in the article!

I wanted to second what PolishBear said on this subject. Here we have 3 or 4 fraudulent cases. Compare that to the thousands of real incidences each month that gay people must endure, and most never report. If you don’t believe that, try living as openly gay for a few months and count the friends and family that abandon you as a reward for being who you are.

(Yawn.) Sooner or later, we’ll all return to that mindset. Gov’t will shrink and won’t shoulder the cost of dealing with this issue. As a gay man, I’m hoping we’ll have a medical cure (or at least a preventative) by then because I have no faith in people’s ability to accept differences long term.

I’ve been seeing these for over 50 years and, as a gay man, I recognize how much these hoaxes set the entire gay community back. The gay community has always been a disconnected lot as these short-sighted, self-aggrandizing idiots demonstrate. I got no sympathy for gays who perpetrate a hoax and I hope they throw the book at this guy.